The Sutra of Salvation can redeem the deceased and give a comprehensive view of their life.
At this moment, within the courtyard where Xu Qing resided, there were over a dozen zombies laboring. Judging from their attire, they were likely corpse workers with local household registration.
In Xu Qing's view, their life stories were undoubtedly realistic records laid out before him, quickly and effectively aiding him in understanding this world.
However, there was a prerequisite for all of this: the Sutra of Salvation could indeed redeem them.
It's useless to just think about it. Xu Qing rolled up his sleeves, tiptoed, and began to approach a nearby zombie.
Although he himself was now a zombie, he was still somewhat apprehensive. If the zombie before him suddenly erupted and bit him, it would surely be quite painful, wouldn't it?
Xu Qing followed closely behind the zombie who was pushing the mill, struggling with himself.
I'll do it! We're all dead; what's there to be afraid of!
After a slight hesitation, he made up his mind. Xu Qing braced himself and reached out to tap the zombie's shoulder.
The zombie remained unmoved, continuing with its task.
Even a donkey has a stubborn streak, but these zombies were more obedient than donkeys!
Seeing this, Xu Qing became even less afraid. Taking advantage of the moonlight, he hurried a few steps forward to finally see the zombie's true face.
It was a ragged, dirt-faced zombie. Judging by its attire, it likely hadn't been a respectable person in life, more like a beggar on the streets.
At this moment, the clouds covered the moon, and apart from the sound of the millstone, the courtyard was silent. Xu Qing glanced around, saw no one else, then retreated behind the zombie, suddenly squatted, and hugged its legs, lifting it up.
The down-and-out zombie fell to the ground with a thud, and Xu Qing straddled its back. Even so, the zombie still struggled to reach out an arm toward the mill handle, as if it had no other thoughts besides pushing the mill.
After finally subduing the zombie, Xu Qing faced a serious problem.
"How do I go about redeeming it?"
In life, he hadn't studied Buddhist teachings nor Taoist philosophies; he wasn't sure how to redeem anyone other than by physical means!
Seemingly sensing his thoughts, the Sutra of Salvation in Xu Qing's mind suddenly radiated brightly, and the ethereal verses of the scripture echoed once more.
"The human way is distant, the immortal way is boundless, the ghost way is joyous...
When life begins, the immortal way values life, the ghost way values death..."
As the Sutra of Salvation turned its pages, the deceased's memories unfurled like frozen other-side flowers, blossoming on the road to the Netherworld.
It's said that the Three Lives Stone can show the memories of three past lives. Xu Qing didn't have such ability, but at this moment, he truly saw the past of the deceased in this life.
The zombie's name was Feng Chunlai. In life, he was a disciple of the Yao Sect, basically a beggar.
The Jianghu is comprised of eight external and eight internal sects; the external ones are theft, venom, sell, phoenix, cheat, witch, drama, and kill; the internal ones are shock, fatigue, drift, record, wind, fire, noble, and beg.
Among them, the Yao Sect had the deepest knowledge, focusing on the path of misfortune, and was the hardest to master among the eight great internal sects.
Feng Chunlai had insight; even as a beggar, he held firm to the principle that "diligence leads to skill, and negligence leads to decay." Among beggars, he was always the first to beg and the last to return, an oddity.
It's said that old wine tastes mellower, and old people have greater wisdom.
Feng Chunlai, who had worked in begging for decades, finally realized the true essence of the Yao Sect one night!
It is "to act with benevolence and never seek vengeance."
These ten short words were the ethos that the old beggar had pursued all his life.
That night was New Year's Eve, and it snowed heavily. The joyous Feng Chunlai drank till he was drunk and danced in the streets. The dogs of the Zhao Family in the high walls accompanied him with their barking.
The next day, someone who got up early to sweep the snow discovered the old beggar's body.
He left with a smile on his face.
Feng Chunlai had no parents, no children, no relatives. The officials collected his body publicly, but then tossed it to a corpse driver in private.
Corpse drivers, also known as "Corpse Craftsmen," would collect silver coins from the family and bring the deceased who died far from home back to their hometown, adhering to the principle of returning leaves to their roots. If the corpse had no owner, they would take it to a charity house or a designated little shop for placement.
Some unscrupulous corpse drivers would secretly refine those unclaimed bodies into 'corpse workers' and sell them covertly.
This particular corpse driver was clearly the latter, refining Feng Chunlai into a zombie and then selling it to this mill to work.
As fate would have it, the one who refined the old beggar was the same "black market agent" who had refined Xu Qing's corpse and sold it again.
Profiting off dead men's labor, what a wicked act!
Inwardly cursing, Xu Qing had already scanned the beggar's life.
Afterward, the Sutra of Salvation rated the corpse: inferior human grade.
At the same time, he also received a reward for redeeming the corpse—
Two gathas for singing and playing the banjo, and some delicate bamboo clappers strung together by golden bamboo slices.
The gathas weren't written on paper but directly fused into his mind. As for the clappers...
Xu Qing bit them with his sharp corpse teeth, leaving marks.
They were actually real gold and silver!
However, would these high-purity clappers really help him beg for food?
Xu Qing only found them to be a useless burden. Food sustains the living, and he, as a zombie, had no use for these clappers. If he had them in life, they might have helped with his mortgage...
Returning to reality, Xu Qing's gaze fell upon the subdued zombie beneath him. The old beggar's outstretched hand had somehow been lowered. Looking at his face again, the zombie's lips bore a smile, eyes closed with satisfaction, as he had in life.
Xu Qing stood up, shook the old beggar's corpse, but it was cold and stiff without any reaction.
Not believing it, he put the corpse back before the millstone, letting its hands rest on the handle.
Still no movement at all.
Seeing this, Xu Qing became anxious. If the mill steward discovered this tomorrow, it would surely cause trouble!
But then he thought it over and breathed a sigh of relief.
What did it matter if the old beggar went on strike?
Once he redeemed all the zombies in this courtyard, he would escape with a bucket overnight, leaving the unscrupulous mill to its misery!
With this thought, Xu Qing was filled with energy, rolled up his sleeves, and headed to the next work station!
...
Zombies were plump at night and thin by day, resting during the day and emerging at night; the corpse workers at the mill were no exception.
During the day, the real craftsmen would come to clean the stone troughs and add the grains and herbs that needed to be ground at night, while the zombies acted like mules, tirelessly performing the mill's most menial tasks, nourished by moonlight, working like perpetual motion machines.
In no time, Xu Qing arrived at another circular mill trough about a dozen feet in diameter. Following the same method, he subdued the corpse worker and then opened the Sutra of Salvation...
Through the Sutra of Salvation, past lives could be seen.
The zombie beneath him and the old beggar were colleagues, but the former was a younger junior.
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, he and a group of beggars were huddled in an abandoned house, sipping wine and gnawing on chicken legs. Unexpectedly, a gang of masked men burst in and cleaned out the beggar nest in no time.
After viewing the beggar's life, Xu Qing received a reward—a metal rice bowl and a dog-beating stick.
He couldn't understand why the young beggar was killed.
Why would these masked men, ignoring wealthy merchants and officials, raid a beggar nest in the middle of the New Year festivities?
By the fourth watch, Xu Qing had redeemed seven or eight zombies, all of whom had been beggars in Prefecture City.
Looking at the series of golden, silver, and iron bamboo clappers hanging from his waist, Xu Qing couldn't hold back any longer.
What kind of loot rate was this? Forget about nobles and officials; was there not a single wealthy landlord or a bandit in the entire courtyard?
As the fourth watch rang, time was running out, but Xu Qing had only redeemed less than half of the zombies in the courtyard.
"I'll pick a few more, regardless of the reward, and then stop!"
With this in mind, Xu Qing picked the tallest among the short ones, choosing a zombie that didn't look too bedraggled. To his surprise, he actually found something valuable this time.
The man had been a poor scholar from a declining family. Despite being alone, he was well-versed in literature. He would set up a stall on the street to write letters for people, drawing and doing calligraphy, living a secure life.
Unfortunately, his good days didn't last long. The scholar fell in love with a courtesan named Su Hongxiu. This woman grew up in a brothel, with a thousand faces and countless tricks, far beyond the scholar's ability to control.
On normal days, Su Hongxiu would feign headaches to ask for medical expenses or demand money for cosmetics. Eventually, she even stopped making excuses and blatantly asked for more money.
Any other person would have refused, but the scholar was not like other people!
Su Hongxiu asked for money, and he not only met her demands but also eagerly asked if it was enough, offering to earn more if it wasn't.
Even a dog doesn't fawn over someone this much! Yet the master must feed it well for it to have the strength to wag its tail.
Su Hongxiu was the top courtesan in the brothel, always claiming to sell only her talent, not her body. The scholar invested all his earnings in her but didn't even get to touch her feet, yet he kept pursuing her eagerly.
Not far from the scholar's stall, an elderly fortune teller, unable to stand the sight, made a clay figure with one end a dog and the other end a rabbit.
Every time the bamboo stick was turned, the dog chased the rabbit in circles.
But no matter how long it turned, even if the clay base wore out, the dog would never catch the rabbit.
And that rabbit was like Su Hongxiu.
Angry and humiliated, the scholar scolded the old fortune teller, saying he was a meddling busybody!
After more than half a year, Su Hongxiu, who had become increasingly valuable, was eventually bought out by a civilian official to be his concubine. The scholar, upon hearing this "dreadful news," hurried to the official's house, determined to rescue his beloved.
Arriving at the official's house, the scholar planned to climb over the wall. By chance, he saw Su Hongxiu flirting with the old official in the rear garden.
How could she lower her head and be that close with an old man past sixty?
Not believing his eyes, the scholar reasoned that Su Hongxiu had to comply out of necessity.
After the old official, holding his aching back, left the garden, the scholar climbed over the wall.
Seeing Su Hongxiu's startled face, the scholar's eyes filled with tears before he could speak.
"Hongxiu, let's elope, I'll take you away from this dreadful place, and never let anyone bully you again!"
Su Hongxiu pulled away, rubbing her wrist, "You hurt me."
"Also, we should not meet again, I fear the master's suspicion!"
This beautiful woman said these words more cutting than any knife to the heart.
The scholar forced a smile, gave all his money for the elopement to Su Hongxiu, and left without knowing how. He only remembered that day was bitterly cold, like falling into an ice hole!
He spent all his savings, and all the money earned went to his true love, but it didn't return intact.
Passing a river, he suddenly thought:
Bitches are heartless, actors are unfaithful.
And I am a fool, a big fool!
After that, there was one more body floating in the icy river until it was fished out by a corpse driver.
"Such deep resentment, just perfect for a corpse worker..."
The scholar's past life ended here.
While Xu Qing lamented, the Sutra of Salvation provided corresponding rewards.
A mid-grade human volume of the "Scripture of Books," and a Heart Communication Pill...